


Grieving

by OhanaHoku



Series: Hawaii Five-0 One Shots [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bromance, Brotp, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Empath, Empath Danny, Empath Danny "Danno" Williams, Friendship, Gen, Grieving, Grieving Steve McGarrett, Hurt Steve, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Hugging, Platonic Relationships, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 04:44:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17318318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhanaHoku/pseuds/OhanaHoku
Summary: Deleted Scene from my work, 'The Pain of the World On His Shoulders', featuring Empath Danny comforting a grieving Steve.-"What's the matter with you? For a soldier you don't follow orders very well, you know that? Now get your ass over here, Steven!" He demanded, relieved when Steve finally stood up and walked over, sitting down.





	Grieving

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be the ending to my latest chapter of 'The Pain of the World on his Shoulders', but Steve is pretty out of character, so I cut it. Thought it made a nice one shot though, so here it is! No trigger warnings.

    It had been eight days since Danny met Commander McGarrett, a week since the incident on the Chinese freighter and six days since Hesse was tagged as missing instead of dead.

 

    They'd all been busy at the palace getting their offices in order, working around the technicians as they set up the computers, something Chin seemed especially interested in as he helped the techies.

 

    Things were really coming together and all that was left was a few more, personal touches. Danny was going to bring in a couple of pictures of Grace, maybe one of Jersey, possibly get a plant. Nah, plants are too much trouble. He rolled a pen between his fingers, maybe he'd get something more practical like a plastic plant. No, too tacky.

 

    "Hey, you gonna sit there all night? Day's over, brah, we're heading out for the night." Chin Ho said, popping his head in through the door.

 

    Danny looked up at him and nodded his head. "Yeah, sounds good." He answered, getting up and checking his watch. "Eleven o'clock already?" He shook his head, tossing the pen on the table. "Steve still here?"

 

    "Yeah, in his office." Chin told him as Kono came up, car keys jingling in her hand.

 

    "I'm hitting the beach for a few waves. You wanna join, brah?" She asked Danny teasingly.

 

    He raised an eyebrow. "You're going surfing now? As in, riptides and sharks and the ocean and all that? No. No, I am perfectly fine on the dry land thank you very much."

 

    She laughed. "Suit yourself. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

 

    Danny smiled, giving her a quick hug before she left. "Don't fall asleep on your board, rookie."

 

    She rolled her eyes and left, Chin and Danny glancing over at Steve in his office behind his desk. "What are the odds he's going to go home tonight?" Chin asked, a touch concerned for their boss who didn't seem to know the meaning of sleep.

 

    "Close to none." Danny answered, shaking his head. "You go on home, maybe I can talk some sense into his thick skull."

 

    Chin chuckled his assent. "Night, brah."

 

    "Night." Danny stared at Steve through the glass wall of the office, biting his lip as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

 

    Much like Chin, Danny was concerned for Steve as well, but for an almost entirely different reason. Steve still hadn't allowed himself to grieve for his father. Danny knew this for a fact because Steve had been at the office every single day and night, hence the way he was only going home for a few hours every night.

 

    Distraction, that's what Steve thought he was accomplishing, pushing his feelings aside and pretending he was fine. But all he was succeeding in doing was compressing his emotions so hard together that if they weren't let out soon he'd snap.

 

    Rubbing his hand over his mouth, Danny decided he'd had enough of watching Steve hurt himself. If Steve wasn't going to admit he needed this than Danny would have to be the one to show him.

 

    Steve hardly glanced up as Danny stepped into the room. "Hey, what's up, Danny?"

 

    Danny pursed his lips and remained silent until Steve actually looked up. "Everything okay, Danno?"

 

    The detective's eyes narrowed. "I have told you never to call me that, you-" He stopped himself and shook his head when he saw the slight smirk on Steve's lips and realized Steve just wanted to get a rise out of him. Another attempt for distraction.

 

    "Never mind." Danny sighed and sat down on the couch. "Come here. Please." He sat, patting the seat next to him.

 

    This elicited an eyebrow raise from Steve. "Excuse me, what?"

 

    "Come over here and sit down, Steven." Danny said, tone warning that Steve had better not argue. Of course, with Steve being Steve that didn't happen.

 

    "Look, Danny. If this is about me going home, I'll be done here in a few minutes." Steve told him, rolling his eyes. Danny had given Steve a lecture the night before about working too hard and needing sleep as actual human beings do, but obviously, it hadn't gotten through his hard head.

 

    "What's the matter with you? For a soldier you don't follow orders very well, you know that? Now get your ass over here, Steven!" He demanded, relieved when Steve finally stood up and walked over, sitting down.

 

    "There. Happy now?" He asked, staring at Danny with tired eyes. From close up the signs of wear and tear from lack of sleep were obvious. There were dark bags under his eyes and he had worry lines etched into his forehead, making him look older than his thirty-four years.

 

    "Yes, I'm happy. Thank you." Danny sighed, letting his anger go and opening up his empathic connection, hand clenching for a moment in response to the sudden storm of emotions he sensed from Steve.

 

    "Tell me about your father." Danny instructed, settling against the couch. A sharp pain of hurt and grief and the guilt that Danny dreaded hit Steve's chest. They were quickly forced aside by anger.

 

    "I can't believe you brought me over here for this. I'm not talking about this, Danny." He said coldly, standing up.

 

    Danny reached up and grabbed his hand, pulling him back down. "Sit back down. Don't make me punch you again."

 

    It was a credit to Steve that he didn't pull a ninja move on Danny out of his anger. Or maybe Danny could credit it to the bone-deep exhaustion. Steve rubbed his hands over his face, elbows on his knees. "Why are you so stubborn?"

 

    Danny laughed. "Why am I so stubborn? I should be asking you that, babe. Come on, tell me about your dad. He must have been a pretty special guy to have raised you. I bet you raised hell even when you were younger."

 

    That got a small smile from Steve and Danny could feel some of the anger recede. The young leader sat back, regarding Danny with a searching look before nodding. "Okay... He... used to make us smoothies each day before school, me and my sister. You know, he had to go to work really early and he didn't,t always have a lot of time so our family would always get up early to spend an hour with each other in the morning... They were strawberry. Always strawberry." He huffed a slight laugh. "There was this one time, we ran out of strawberries. So my dad decided to use squash instead with this red dye to make it look like it was strawberry. They were the worst smoothies." He chuckled, eyes getting a glassy look to them.

 

    "Sounds like a great father." Danny said quietly, feeling Steve's grief swell.

 

    "He was. He really was. You know, when I was younger. Don't tell anyone this. I scared of the dark. I guess most kids are, but I was terrified to turn the lights off in my room. And my dad." Steve stopped, voice strained as he fought back tears. "My dad would come in and he'd stay with me, telling me stories until I fell asleep and he'd turn the light off..." Steve's lower lip trembled and Danny gently laid a hand on Steve's shoulder. He was reaching the breaking point.

 

    "When my mom died, everything changed. My dad sent us away and we were- We hardly talked and now-" A broken sob bubbled up. "Now I'll never get to talk to him again and there's- there's so much that I want to tell him and say I'm sorry and that I-" He got no further as he abruptly stopped, staring stolidly at the wall, sniffling loudly as Danny felt him trying to push back his feelings again.

 

    "Steve. Steve, don't. Don't hold it in, buddy. It's okay to grieve." Danny said, feeling him waver for a moment. "Come on, you may be a Navy SEAL, but you're still human, Steve." Danny squeezed his shoulder and felt it. A powerful snap, like bolt cutters opening a padlock on the cage Steve had forced his feelings into.

 

    Steve's face twisted and crumbled, a muffled sob slipping by his lips. "Danny, I c-can't-”

 

    "You can, Steve. I've got you, buddy." Danny consoled him softly, wrapping his arm around his shoulders and pulling him in gently for a hug.

 

    Steve couldn't hold it in any longer. Sobs, some loud, some silent, wracked his body as he leaned into Danny's shoulder.

 

    Tears sprung into Danny's eyes as the new contact with Steve heightened his senses. The overwhelming guilt surged to the foreground, Steve nearly choking on his breath, Danny's own hitching lightly.

 

    "I killed him!" Steve gasped out. "Danny, I killed him." Steve's chest heaved, fighting to breathe through his heartbroken sobs.

 

    "Hey, hey. No. Steve, this was not your fault." Danny's voice left no room for argument, steeled conviction firmly denying that Steve had any part in his father's murder. "Hesse killed your dad, not you. This was not your fault, Steve. None of it."

 

    Steve shook his head, disbelieving. "Steve, listen to me. This was not your fault. Hesse would have pulled that trigger no matter what. The guy's a psychopath, okay? None of this is on you."

 

    The guilt eased a smidgen as reason soothed Steve's tattered heart. It wasn't gone. Maybe it would never be gone, but it helped and that was a win in Danny's book.

 

    They sat there for a span of fifteen minutes before Steve was calming down. He wasn't healed, not by a long shot. But he'd finally accepted his father's death, finally grieved over him. Maybe now he could start on the long road to recovery.

 

    Steve pulled away from Danny, wiping his face. Danny watched him for a moment before feeling him settle. He smiled a bit to himself. "What do you say we go grab some beers, okay? I'm paying."

 

    Steve laughed, threat hoarse from crying. "Danny, it's almost midnight."

 

    Danny shrugged. "Then maybe it'll help you sleep."

 

    He nodded, chuckling. "Yeah, okay. Thanks, partner. Mahalo."

 

    Danny smiled. "You're welcome. Come on, you Neanderthal." He got up, looking back down at Steve's slight smirk.

 

    "I thought I heard you say I was a human just a few minutes ago."

 

    Danny returned with a grin. "You are. Just the prehistoric kind."

 

    Steve laughed, the sound and the faint echo of joy in Danny's chest easing his worry.

**Author's Note:**

> Word Count - 1741. So there we go. If you liked this I hope you check out the original story! :D


End file.
